A Brilliant Way to Eliminate NHIs (Not handed ins)

eliminate NHIs

Probably every parent still stuck in the virtual school nightmare with multiple children can relate to the feeling of helplessness as you watch your children have the lowest grades of their lives. What in the world happened to the leniency of the spring? It is gone. The motto is “sink or swim” now. If you cannot figure it out and get it in on time, here is your zero. The middle and high school no longer accepts late work. When […]

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Into the Unknown: Virtual School Nerves and Anxiety

into the unknown: virtual school nerves and anxiety

Is anyone else feeling nervous about their kids beginning virtual school? I feel like this is an issue that parents across the entire world are dealing with. We have been out of school for the sheltering-in-place or quarantine or social distancing, whatever you want to call it, for a month now. Seriously. An entire month has passed. During that month, we here in Maryland were given home-school packets of suggested work. Thankfully, they gave us all the benefit of the […]

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Which is Better: Home School, Public, or Private Schools

Home school vs. private school pros and cons

There are many pros and cons of home schooling, just as there are pros and cons to public and private schools. If you find yourself weighing the differences of which method of school you should do for your children, this list will help. I have revised my pros and cons lists to reflect my views now that I have 2 years of home-school under my belt as well, and our children have also attended 2 years at a private Christian […]

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Miserable Teaching with 20 boys & the Toothless Wonder

20 boys and the toothless wonder. story of my first week of teaching

***This post is part of the Real Army Wives series, which runs every Monday on storiesofourboys.com. For last week’s chapter click here.*** Sunday, Aug. 17, 2003 Oh, Alan, I missed you the MOST today! We had “Back to School” night, where we meet the parents. Everything was fine except instead of 22, I now have 25, and also this grandparent with two children in my class stayed after and basically threatened me. Yeah. This ignorant, toothless wonder, with a strong […]

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Life After Home School and the Move

life after home school

Tomorrow is Daniel’s very first day of kindergarten. To me he still looks like this: But, believe it or not, the Dan Man is 5, and he is extremely excited about going to school with his brothers. They will all be at the same school together. I had planned it differently, but at the last minute Daniel was awarded a scholarship, so that worked out beautifully. It’s hard to even focus on how much is happening. Our heads are still […]

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Classical Conversations, Basketball, Busy Bags, and Other Mom Stuff

These are the kinds of fun things we get to do in Classical Conversations, our home school tutoring service and curriculum. Look closely at his picture to see if you can find the eel coming out of the coral. (Hint: middle-left, It’s a profile with an eye.) Classical Conversations is a rigorous way to approach home schooling, but it is also fun. It has definitely raised the educational bar for us. ******** If you felt like you were reading the […]

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My Outline for Science Plans for CC Cycle 1 (Part 1)

CC Cycle 1 Science Plans

I feel like I will have an extremely firm grasp on my science plan by the time I finish poring over all these books! One interesting thing about the classical approach to education is that we pull the focus AWAY from good ol’ textbooks and look to real life experience and “living” books instead.  (By living books, I just mean books that are not sold as textbooks.) However, I do actually have several ‘textbooks’ that we will reference this school […]

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Me Time? Or God Time? Juice, Or Milk?

Last night, I felt restless in my spirit. You know that sensation that you get when you have plenty to do, but you don’t WANT to do any of it? I had the need to get out. Some people call it “ME” time. I don’t call it “ME” time. I never found spending an hour pampering myself to be refreshing at all. However, I DO find a nice, long, not too slow, and not too fast, walk to work WONDERS. […]

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Montessori at Home: Brainy Kit Review

A little while back, I got an email from Viktoria Altman, President of Brainy Kit. She asked if I’d be interested in receiving a complimentary kit of Montessori materials and lesson plans. YES! Would I ever!!  I’ve only had two blogger offers that I was this excited about: Brainy Kit and Jamberry Nails. (Look for a Jamberry post soon.) Now I know you’re wondering what in the world I’m talking about. Well, Montessori is a hands on method of preschool […]

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Centers for our Homeschool

We just completed our second week of Classical Conversations, and man oh man, is it a lot to memorize for some little ‘fellas. Now most people as “computer oriented” as myself would go to the CC website or to halfahundredacrewood.com and grab some ideas. I really don’t know why I haven’t gotten around to that yet. I’m a little embarrassed to admit, I’ve never even visited the CC Connected web page. How can this be?  I know. I know. I […]

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